Say WHAT??

Monday Morning Wake Up Call

It was SUPPOSED to be a laid back day.  We waited both on Friday Evening and Last Night to get "the call" to report to bay "X" to work on our remaining problems.  No call, no service, right? RIGHT!

Ring, Ring, RING!!! At 7:15 AM.  Came "THE CALL."  Awoken out of a pleasant slumber by the phone: "Mr. Gordon could you come over here to bay 41?"  Even half deaf and mind afog with still slumbering synapses, I understood the words. "Uhhhh, we can be there in about 30 minutes." I replied already scurrying from our new and wonderfully comfy queen-size memory foam mattress bed.  I threw on some clothes and started bringing in the sides of the RV.

[Did I mention that the temperatures in Red Bay, AL were in the LOW 20's last night.  Now, I know that to those of you in the middle of the deep freeze - Lafayette, Valparaiso, Goodland and even those of you only in the front door of the refrigerator (Toronto, DeRossett, etc.) that don't seem like much BUT Red Bay, Alabama is supposed to be in the Oven, not the Refrigerator when it comes to temperatures.  Say it aint so, Joe! Say it aint so!  Add to that that RVs aint exactly built with Arctic clippers in mind PLUS we are Florida Residents in prospect now, having made the conscious decision to abandon the north permanently for warmer climes elsewhere.]

So, we are suddenly scurrying, having to abandon our morning cuddle for a whirlwind of putting away and buttoning up the rig to deliver to bay 41.  Power down the Winegard Trav'ler DirecTV antenna.  Bring in the slides.  Disconnect from shore power.  Bring up the jacks.  SAY WHAT??? The rear passenger side slide "topper" isn't wound up in its roller.  It is laying in a bunch on top of the drawn in slide.  "IRENE, re-extend the slide"  Out goes the slide.  The bunched up slide topper snaps tight (WHEW, it isn't torn) then ... POP!!! Ice that was atop the canvas topper pops off like water when you snap a wet towel.  "IRENE, go ahead and bring the slide back in again."  In the slide went and the topper was fine. (WHEW, it's fine)

Next it was 7 hours straight in a montrous, barely warmed steel building that is bigger than 6 football fields.  It was totally cool to see our rig lifted into the air on 6 synchronized wheel jacks each of which can lift 15000 pounds.

This had to be done to replace the electronically controlled radiator fan clutch which was bad when it arrived in Tampa, Florida.  The fan was totally "impacted" if I can use a dental/medical term to describe it.  I KNEW it wasn't good when 5 men were under the butt end of our rig (it is a REAR end Diesel Pusher) for 45 minutes trying to figure out how to get it out.  Then it took 3 of those men 2 hours to actually GET IT OUT.  Maybe someday I'll post about how every engineer ought to be obligated to actually WORK on the stuff they design.  Then, they probably wouldn't put size 54 shoes in a size 6 box (so to say) as they so often do.   They finally finished the clutch R&R (removal and replacement) at 2 PM about 7 hours after they had begun.

Next up was trying to get the weight balance correct in our rig.  One of the reasons we purchased the 45LP is because of its "Cargo Carrying Capability" (CCC in RV Parlance).  In RVs how much "STUFF" they can carry is important.  Especially for Full-Timers like Irene and I because we have to take all our "stuff" with us.   How much an RV can carry is based up how many pounds all of its axles together can carry.  On the 45LP the axles can carry the following:

    Front axle - 16,000 pounds  |

    Drive axle - 22,000 pounds  | Gross Axle Weight Ratings

       Tag axle - 13,600 pounds  |

                        -----------------

Total weight = 51,600 pounds - Gross Vehicle Weight Rating (GVWR)

The first time we weighed our rig the weights we had were

Front Axle - 15,400+

Drive Axle - 24,500+ !!!!! WHAT, you gotta be KIDDING US!

Tag Axle - 3400+ 

This was crazy.  The "ratio" between the  Drive and tag is supposed to be about 70/30.  Ours was 87.5/12.5.  Our tag simply was NOT carrying its share of the weight.

I mentioned in a previous post (http://www.jitrekking.blogspot.com/2014/01/bay-34-we-got-call-last-night-that-we.html) speaking about this to the head of the chassis division of Tiffin.

Anyway the 2 shop guys take the rig over to weigh (I follow them in our Ford Flex) and GUESS what they did ...... Did you guess "Turned on the turn signal and dumped the tag?" (if you DID pat yourself on the back).  They come back to the shop and figure and figure and figure and ... Finally, they ask me "What exactly did Gary Harris say to on Friday? Because your tag axle weight was only 3500 pounds.  I explained to them about the Tax axle dump software change and NOT to use the turn signal when they go over to weigh.  Off they go to weigh again and THIS time everything is wonderful.  They came back to the shop at 3:10 PM and tell me.  Come here tomorrow @ 7 AM and we'll adjust the weight distribution.   We're sorry, we didn't know ANYTHING about that software change.  This makes us look like idiots because no one has told us anything."  I just told them "Welcome to the club.  It isn't anywhere in the owner's manuals either and I was scared to death the first time my weights were that messed up."  Apparently Tiffin could use better documentation and dissemination of that documentation.